Computer applications automate manual tasks and make available new kinds of functionality. An important issue for designers of computer applications is deciding what information to display to the user. Because the user interface to applications is typically through a computer monitor display having a relatively small display area, applications must optimize the available space on the display for elements most helpful to the user. Ideally, the display would show to the user the most useful information presented in the most efficient way. This ideal is difficult to achieve, however, because, depending on the particular user and the particular task the user is performing, different information would be the most useful, and multiple methods of presenting information exist.
Computer drawing programs are a category of computer applications that assist a computer user in producing and editing such drawings as block diagrams. flowcharts, maps, office layouts, organizational charts, project schedules, and other types of drawings. Generally, drawing programs display a number of toolbars near the top of the screen, and a working area in the other portions of the screen. For instance, as seen in FIG. 1, a toolbar area 110 of an application window 100 displayed by the drawing program can contain a variety of toolbars, some of which are user configurable. A default set of toolbars appears when the drawing program is launched. Because the toolbar area 110 contains tools that almost every user is very likely to use, its default presence on the drawing screen 100 is acceptable. A client area 114 contains a document window 116 for constructing the drawing. The user can elect to fill a portion of the client area 114 with a palette of shapes 118. Displaying the palette 118 reduces the amount of the client area 114 available for displaying the document window 116, and therefore reduces the amount of information about the drawing that can be displayed in the document window. By choosing whether the palette 118 is displayed, the user determines how much of the document window 116 is available for displaying the drawing at any given time.
In certain situations, other tools would help the user to create drawings. For instance, it would be helpful to the user to see the size and position of individual objects 120 that appear in the client area 114 of the drawing screen 100. However, having a window dedicated to displaying object size and position information would be useful sometimes, but at other times it would hinder the user. For instance, the portion of the drawing under the display area used for such a window would be obscured by the window, rendering it unavailable to the user.
Additionally, windows that present additional useful information to the user are generally modal windows. A modal window changes the mode of the program and requires input from the user before the modal window disappears and the program can resume its primary mode. For instance, when the user selects an OpenFile button 112 from the toolbar 110, a file-open pop-up window appears on the client area 114. In FIG. 2 for example, a pop-up window 210 appears when the OpenFile button 112 is pressed. This pop-up window 210 covers a large portion of the client area 114 of the drawing screen 200, obscuring the information underneath it. Additionally, the pop-up window 210 is a modal window, preventing the user from performing any other function in the drawing program until satisfactory input is received in the modal pop-up window. Once the pop-up window 210 is open, the window must be addressed by the user can return to creating the drawing. Although the information presented to the user in the pop-up window 210 is useful, forcing the user to perform some action, such as closing the modal window, is a hindrance and interrupts the flow of the user.
In view of the conflict described above between (a) providing in a drawing program additional tools and information relating to a drawing and (b) maximizing the visual area available for displaying the contents of the drawing and reducing the modality of the drawings program, a drawing program that provides additional tools and information without consuming significant visual area or increasing the modality of the drawing program would have significant utility.